What does Hybrid Education Mean?

Hybrid education is a mix of formal and online education. While the education continues formally, the course is broadcast live online, allowing students who cannot be in the classroom to attend the course.

In many schools, distance education or online education cameras are kept ready. They do this not only for a scenario that all students are absent, but also to ensure that students who cannot be at school due to illness while formal education continues, in case of emergency travel, etc., can attend classes online.

Which Devices Are Used in Hybrid Education?

For hybrid education, cameras that can broadcast live are required. While many live broadcast cameras have built-in microphones, audio devices used in video conferences can also be used with the cameras for better quality audio transmission.

What are the Online Education Cameras?

There are many live broadcast cameras that can be used for distance/online education. We can even consider laptop cameras (even though they are not very useful) as distance education cameras. We can eliminate all but PTZ cameras for efficient online lessons.

PTZ? What is this? Let's explain right away.

What is PTZ Camera?

The PTZ feature, which is short for Pan Tilt Zoom, refers to the ability of cameras to rotate horizontally and vertically and zoom. This ensures that the camera can always view the teacher when he or she is moving around the classroom.

What are the Benefits of PTZ Cameras in Online Education?

While teaching a lesson, the teacher should be able to focus on the subject she or he is teaching without worrying about whether the camera is watching her/him or not. PTZ cameras have extra features for this purpose. One of them is preset area tracking. For example, let's say the teacher usually stands in front of the smart board, at the teacher's desk, or in front of a clipboard. These 3 areas are defined once on the camera and these definitions are assigned to numbers on the remote control. When moving to the first area, the teacher presses "1" button on the remote control and camera zooms on that area. The display setting is changed in the same way for other defined areas. There is also a button to return to full screen view.

You can say: "I might forget to change the camera's image settings when I move. Let the camera find me wherever I am and automatically switch to the related field setting I define."

There are also cameras that can do this. These cameras are called E-PTZ cameras.

What is the Difference Between EPTZ and PTZ Camera?

In PTZ cameras, some presets can be saved and the camera can be changed to these settings using the remote control. E-PTZ cameras, on the other hand, can switch between presets without needing a remote control. These cameras feature artificial intelligence-supported facial recognition technology. The camera recognizes the teacher and follows him/her throughout the classroom. Even though different people pass in front of the teacher, the camera does not stop following the teacher. As with PTZ cameras, areas can be defined, and when the teacher comes to these areas, the camera automatically adjusts the image, or the camera follows the teacher without presetting.

Some EPTZ cameras require a few simple hand movements from the teacher to start tracking, follow the full body, and stop tracking. Thus, the remote control is completely disabled during the lesson and does not distract the teachers.

What Other Features Should Be Considered in Online Education Cameras?

• It should be easy to use. Training can start immediately by simply plugging a USB cable into the computer.
• Should be used on a table, ceiling or tripod.
• Artificial intelligence-supported cameras are preferred because they undertake many tasks.
• Most live broadcast cameras have a zoom feature. When choosing a camera, care should be taken to ensure that its zoom capacity is appropriate for the size of the class.
• If the camera has a built-in microphone, it is important that it has noise canceling feature.
• Privacy is important. The camera must stop imaging when the USB cable is disconnected from the computer.

The use of the hybrid education model, which provides great benefits to both teachers, students and school administrators, is increasing, especially in universities, high schools and private schools. This increase is expected to accelerate further, and therefore it is important that the infrastructure in schools is established and teachers and students adapt to the hybrid model as quickly as possible.

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